This is not the same Oklahoma Sooners baseball team that stumbled and bumbled its way through the last month of the regular season. It doesn't matter, though, because the Sooners are on their way to the Men's College World Series in Omaha after hammering the 15th-seeded Kansas Jayhawks with a pair of blowout victories in the Lawrence Super Regional.
The Sooners combined wins of 8-1 and 13-2 to sweep the Jayhawks on their home diamond in the Lawrence Super regional earned a 12th MCWS appearance in program history and the second in five years.
For the second straight weekend, Oklahoma (38-22) went on the road against a national seed -- No. 2 Georgia Tech last weekend and Big 12 champion Kansas this past weekend -- and unequivocally came out looking like the better team. The regional championship win over Georgia Tech had more drama attached to it, but the destruction the Sooners wreaked on a good Kansas team that tied its winningest season in program history was undeniable.
OU won the opening game of the Lawrence Super Regional 8-1 behind a masterful pitching performance from freshman starter Cord Rager. The Sooners came back with another true freshman to start Game 2 against the Jayhawks on Sunday.
Oklahoma rolls through Kansas in a scorched-earth Super Regional rout
Like in Game 1 on Saturday, when Oklahoma jumped out to a 7-0 advantage before Kansas had recorded its second base hit, the Sooners pounded the Jayhawks' best starting pitcher, Mason Cook, on Sunday for seven runs on four hits, along with an infield error, a balk and a hit batter before he could record five outs.
Oklahoma led 8-1 in the bottom of the third inning when Sunday's game was halted due to inclement weather. The game was later suspended and continued on Monday.
The Kansas faithful, who were in much smaller numbers when the game was continued at noon on Monday, were hopeful that the Jayhawks would be able to catch their breath and maybe regroup and reset overnight, but were disappointed to find out that OU pitching was able to continue to silence the KU hitters for what now was a third consecutive day.
When the game resumed on Monday, three Oklahoma pitchers faced a total of 21 Kansas hitters over the final six innings, allowing just one run and one hit, an eighth-inning home run by KU offensive leader Tyson Leblanc. The Jayhawks were retired in order in four of the final six innings.
OU starter Xander Mercurius was outstanding. He started the game on Sunday, working the first three innings, and returned to the mound for the start of the suspended game. He ended up pitching 4.0 innings, giving up one run on three hits and striking out six. Junior left-hander Nate Smithburg entered the game in the fifth inning and shut down the Kansas offense, allowing just one hit and one run in 3.2 innings and was awarded the win.
Jason Bodin and closer Jackson Cleveland followed Smithburg to the mound and recorded the final four outs to secure the win
In two NCAA Tournament starts this season, Mercurius has worked 9.2 innings and struck out 14 batters.
Pitching, especially from the starting rotation, had been more of a liability than an asset as Oklahoma headed down the homestretch of the season toward the postseason. But it has been a strength of this team the past two weekends and is as responsible for Oklahoma's postseason success winning six of seven NCAA Tournament games as the Sooners' scorching bats.
OU's staff ERA against Kansas in the Super Regional was 1.50. Coming into the series with Kansas, Sooner pitchers had a staff ERA of 5.15. The Kansas bats were silenced by OU pitching, hitting just .131 (8-for-61) as a team over the two games.
In winning the Lawrence Regional a week ago, Kansas scored 24 runs on 30 hits and eight home runs. In two games against the Sooners, however, the Jayhawks managed just three runs on eight hits and one solo home run.
Oklahoma continued its long-ball barrage through the two regional rounds, hitting seven more jacks in the Kansas series, giving them 11 total the past two weekends. Dayton Tockey and Trey Gambill each had a pair of home runs in the Lawrence Super Regional. Tockey has five home runs in seven NCAA Tournament games.
As a team, Oklahoma hit .329 (24-for-73) against Kansas pitching. They batted .358 in five games in last week in the Atlanta Regional.
Read more: Skip Johnson perfectly encapsulates Sooners' improbable run as they head into MCWS
The Sooners are 6-1 and have scored 70 runs on 90 hits in their seven postseason games.
Oklahoma is one of five SEC teams that advanced to the Men's College World Series. The Sooners will face No. 7 seed Alabama on Saturday in the opening round of the MCWS.
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